Annexed by Sharon Dogar

I'd been wanting to read Sharon Dogar's Annexed since I saw it on the shelf at a local book store. I was working in the library a couple of weeks ago and spotted it on the shelf in the young adult (YA) section and grabbed it. And I'm so glad I did.

Annexed is a YA historical fiction work written from the perspective of Peter Van Pels, one of the eight hiding in the Annex with Anne Frank and her family. The book alternates between Peter in sick bay in a concentration camp reminiscing--trying to remember what it meant to be alive, really--and flashbacks to different points in the time the group was together in the Annex.

Dogar admits that we know a lot about Anne Frank. But what about those who lived in the space with her? That was the question that drove this book. Dogar used Anne's diary as the primary source for the first part of the novel, taking Anne's experiences and interpreting them from Peter's point of view. She also adds what she imagined Peter experiencing as a young man coming of age in a time when it was nearly impossible to do anything but age quickly. Dogar does a masterful job of exploring identity ("Why do I have to be a Jew? Why can't I just be Peter?"), teenage angst/hopes/desires/dreams, what it means to survive against amazing obstacles, and why it is important that we all remember.

This book was truly a YA book--skimming the surface of these themes. At the same time, Dogar draws the reader in and paints a picture like I've never read of what it was like to be captured, put on a train, dropped off at one concentration camp and sent to another. It was vivid and haunting--a book that makes you remember because it sinks into your bones.

Thanks to the many writers who have made sure the story lives on and we will always remember. So that it never happens again.

If Darwin Prayed

Our faith was never meant to stand still. We were meant, from the beginning, to grow in all things. Just as our understanding of God and what it means to be part of a faith community--and to be human--evolves, so too does our universe live and evolve. It's the stuff of Darwin, and it's the stuff of If Darwin Prayed: Prayers for Evolutionary Mystics by Bruce Sanguin.

If Darwin Prayed is a prayer book that includes prayers for all seasons included in the lectionary as well as a few additional times of year. Prayers for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Palm Sunday and Good Friday, Easter and the Ordinary Season are all included--most with a scripture reference upon which the prayer is based or from which it is derived.

The language is expressive and colorful. It's not everyday that one includes "silencing the political party poopers" in a prayer. It's not every church that can tolerate such things. Other prayers stir in the reader (pray-er) a desire for peace, to right the wrongs of our planet, to care for the Earth, to take one's place in the Earth as members of her community, to express gratitude for...well...all things.

This prayer book reminds us all that our faith should never stay in one place--and neither should the prayers we pray in corporate or personal worship. Although I've not yet read all of them, I have certainly found several that will be incorporated in my personal time of prayer.

My encouragement is that you not allow the mention of Darwin to scare you off. Instead, my hope is that you will be inspired to move beyond where you currently are and use this book as one of many tools to aid that endeavor.

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Thanks to Speak Easy for sending this book for me to review.

Fall to Grace

Fall to Grace: A Revolution of God, Self, and Society is author Jay Bakker’s call to re-examine our individual and collective thoughts on grace–what it really is, who really gets it, and what it would look like if we really extended it to everyone.

Jay Bakker is the son of the well-known (infamous?) Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker of 80′s televangelism. Most of us remember how that turned out. Suffice it to say that Jay has a leg to stand on where a conversation around grace is concerned. Indeed, he spends the first couple of chapters describing what it was like for him to be part of that family at the highest and lowest points.

With humorous and earthy tones, Bakker takes us on a journey that explores , in order, who this God is who freely bestows grace, who we are as individuals working (unnecessarily so–it’s grace after all) to receive grace, and what it would look like if we extended grace to the world around us. Indeed, he calls it a revolution.

If we could see God as a loving, doting parent who wants the best for all of God’s children–that we are punished by our “sin” and not for it–and as the parent who welcomes all of your friends over to the house with a stocked pantry and fridge, how would that change the way we view grace?

If we could see ourselves as broken, yes, but still loved by this God of grace, unconditionally and without exception, how would that change the way we receive grace?

If we could look at the society and people around us, with all of their bent and broken ways, with all of their flaws, knowing what we do about God’s grace and having received it as we have, how would that change the way we welcomed others?

These, I think, are the points Bakker tries to make over the course of this book. He provides plenty of scripture–primarily using Galatians as the backdrop. He offers a reasonable base for why so many in the church have botched it. He includes personal accounts from others who have re-discovered grace. And just about the time you’ve considered joining this new revolution (if you’re not already there), he offers up a platform for why the lines we draw in religious organizations around the issue of homosexuality are way off base.

As for this reader, I was with Bakker the whole way. For those who struggle with accepting grace (or bestowing it), this just might be the book for you to really think about who God is, what it means to really and truly receive grace, and how well you include or exclude others from participating in the work of the Kingdom on matters that, in the grand scheme of things, don’t matter at all.

This book was a quick and easy read–and well worth the time.

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Thanks to TheOOZE.com for sending me the book and extending grace on a late review over at mwhitehouse.wordpress.com.

Memoirs of a Geisha

Contrary to (probably) popular Western belief, a geisha is an artisan, an entertainer--not a prostitute. Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha is the story of Sayuri, once known as Chiyo who, along with her sister, were sold as young girls. They were separated once they arrived in Kyoto, and Chiyo went to live and work as a maid in an okiya, with the understanding that she would one day train to become a geisha.

With the help of another geisha, Sayuri becomes one of the most well-known and sought after geisha in the Gion district--in spite of a rival geisha, the Great Depression, WWII and her own desire for the love of one man in particular.

Loaded with vivid descriptions of life in Japan--most especially the artistry of life as a geisha, this books includes a little bit of everything: a hero, a villain, love, lust, war, business and intrigue.

Although it was published in 1997, and very popular even then, I never felt compelled to read it--and I'm not sure I would have appreciated it had I read it before now. It's on the BBC list of 100 must-read books--and rightfully so. If sex is an art, this is a masterpiece that belongs in everyone's collection.